The supporters of Southampton Football Club are getting scared to read the press, it seems that every day one player or another is linked with another club, they now need to hear some positive news.

It has not been a good last month or so for Saints fans and it has been made worse by the constant rumour mongering in the media by certain journalists who look to link just about every player at St Mary's with another club to give the impression of a club in totla meltdown.

Whilst it is certainly stormy sea's at the club the reality is we would be sailing these waters anyway whether Nicola Cortese was still in the boardroom and Mauricio Pochettino in the managers seat, the Daily Echo sports editor Simon Carter has written an excellent comment piece today and he tackles this very same question coming to the conclusion that certain players are just looking for a convenient excuse to manipulate an exit from the club.

Dejan Lovren is the latest and it has to be said his reasoning behind wanting away is flimsy at best, Lovren claims the club is now lacking ambition, but as carter points out in a lot more detail than I am doing here, when Lovren arrived Saints had just finished 14th in the Premier after fighting a relegation battle, added to that they had a manager who had spent his entire career as a manager fighting relegation, did Lovren really believe that Cortese could turn a club round that quickly and make them Champions League contenders within two seasons ? In their second season after their major takeover Manchester City could only finish 5th despite spending over £100 million that was after a first season of 10th after similar spending, some Saints fans and seemingly some players have come to think that Champions League football is only a matter of following a simple set of rules and it is guaranteed.

So after weeks of negative headlines the supporters of this football club really need a few positives, yes of course we have been linked with a number of players and in the main these have looked very promising, but we still haven't signed them yet and we supporters really need to see some action in this area so we can start to believe that the team will be rebuilt with quality rather than see a few late over priced signings as we have seen in the last two seasons.

Contrary to popular belief in some quarters, Southampton Football Club is still in a better position than most of the other teams in the Premier League, I would suggest of the 9 clubs who finished below us still in the division and the 3 promoted clubs, we have the best qualified manager, we have the best core squad and we have a lot more money to spend to build that squad back up than anyone outside of the top 7 from last season.

If Cortese and Pochettino had stayed then we would still have seen departures, we would need to in order to improve the squad, this is how every club outside of a privileged few has to operate out of necessity, indeed our Promotion squad of 2011/12 was built on the funds raised from the sale of Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain should anyone have forgotten that and would like to claim that Saints were not a selling club under our ex Chairman, if Oxo had stayed the chances are the squad would have not been strong enough to sustain a promotion push and key players in that campaign like Jack Cork, Danny Fox (Yes look at the assists that season and tell me he wasnt key) and Billy Sharp would probably not have been affordable.

On the face of it Saints are now in a good position to keep moving forward and keep progressing.of course there is the unknown factor but every club has that but there is no reason why we should not finish 8th again, but now is the time to start delivering some good news to the fans, it is amazing how a few pieces of good news will improve morale amongst the faithful and make them start to believe that Saints can flourish.

As I have said before we now have a better qualified manager in charge of the club, someone who has the contacts and experience to bring in some good players and it could be that the players coming in are better than those going out, however the proof of the pudding is in the eating and if this football club is to quieten down those who would like to see it fail then now is just the right time to start to generate some positive headlines about quality players wanting to play for this football club rather than depressing news about how some of our so called heroes care about nothing else other than their bank account.

Photo: Action Images

slynch added 10:04 - Jul 7 Saints had a positive week last week. They sold a few ex-3rd division players for far too much to teams above them. Hopefully, they'll take some more and Saints can buy some others that are better for half as much! Second by Christmas!
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IanRC added 10:38 - Jul 7 Is it good news that Morgan Schneiderlin is advising our board to spend the money from player sales wisely ?
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SanMarco added 10:42 - Jul 7 I like the optimism slynch. I have just read the Carter piece and it is indeed excellent. All the deluded Cortese worshippers need to read it and think for five minutes. My own view is that unless NC was given assurances from the paymasters at the club that x amount was going to be spent and he was then let down/betrayed whatever, then he has absolutely no leg to stand on and is exposed as a loud-mouthed self-publicist who walked away from the club (he wasn't sacked) as soon as he was exposed. All our current 'meltdown' concerns were directly caused by the big mouth and swagger of NC. To see Lovren of all people quoting him beggars belief - as did the fact that quite a few NC worshippers swallowed it all whole and reacted by criticising the club rather than the stupid little player. Perhaps I am guilty of over-egging the pudding when I say this but the NC brigade are a serious danger to the future stability of the club. If the Liebherrs decide to sell because they are fed-up with it all then it WILL be a disaster...

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BaselSaint added 11:01 - Jul 7 Lovren would do well to remember the phrase `be careful what you do on the way up because who don't know who you might meet on the way down`. It would be advisable for aspiring young players to not burn their bridges.
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halftimeorange added 11:28 - Jul 7 I wonder how supporters of Liverpool FC view the fact that their first team will be built around a core of ex-Saints and that their own club is unable to bring its own talent through the ranks. What is/has happened at St Marys is a warning shot to fans everywhere. Maybe the chanting of heroes names and the attendant general adulation should be abandoned in the Northam. Concentrate on anti-Pompey songs. At least we know they'll still be around next season.

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Pecky3 added 14:22 - Jul 7 Saints need to tell Lovren he is not going anywhere at least until we have a replacement! Player power is reaching a ridiculous level. His weekend comments are unacceptable. saints should fine him and make him sweat in the reserves until the January 2015 window!
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BoondockSaint added 14:34 - Jul 7 Right you are halftimeorange! Using the Moyes system, they are bringing in players that finished lower last year! They didn't tell Lovern their ambition is to finish lower (it will give them something to whinge about). Any players wishing to leave please see Mr. Osvaldo to receive your parting gift!
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REEDYREEDOREEDZ added 17:43 - Jul 7 Yeah that's a good article in the Echo. To be fair to Cortese, the whole Champions League dream was a clever façade to attract Champions League quality players to the club. The club had to be seen as ambitious to get the players in so to get people and players talking about the CL is a good way to spread the optimism. Even Poche slating the Europa League might've been a ruse to make out we were somehow better than that competition. The only way that 'dream' would've been achieved was through massive spending which Katherina didn't want without being in control of it. Cortese and Poche knew that players would leave without tens of millions being spent to improve the squad. So that was the end of that, and so we start again. Koeman has got a massive rebuild on his hands. I suppose if we're looking for positives then Koeman has the opportunity to bring in the ideal players to fit his system, rather than inheriting a squad that might not have the right players to play how he wants.

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